Who Wants to be a Superhero [Spoilers]

The girls and I watched this tonight--first episode, I think. It's set up in what I guess is the typical reality-show format of participants being eliminated over time until the last one left is the winner (I don't usually watch reality TV so maybe I'm mistaken on this). But I've always thought Stan Lee was a hoot, ever since I was a kid reading his column and enjoying his work in Marvel Comics. So we put it on.

It's fluff, so I was more interested in watching the kids watching it. They quickly decided who had a terrible name but was otherwise cool ("Cell Phone Girl"), who had a terrible persona and the sooner they're gone the better ("Monkey Girl"), who had a good costume ("Nitro G" but only because they thought he looked a little like Green Lantern), and--in the eleven-year-old's opinion--who was just awesome for some reason, go figure ("The Iron Enforcer", or as they refer to him, "Gun-for-an-Arm Guy"). The seven-year-old likes the ones she perceives as nice, or funny ("Cell Phone Girl," "Fat Mama," "Lemuria," and "Major Victory").

The test this episode had the heroes having to quickly and inconspicuously change from street clothes into costumes, the fastest one being the winner. The real test, though, was that the show had planted a little girl in the scene, crying about being lost and unable to find her mother--those heroes who took the time to help the young actress passed this test. FYI, 3 out of the 5 women stopped to help, 1 out of the 5 men did, whether this indicates genuine helpfulness or the ability to recognize the child's presence as part of the test, I don't know. I will say that after this test, both of my girls now have a much higher opinion of those who stopped to help, and any who didn't they are very annoyed with, including Nitro G (despite their fondness for his costume).

Oh, and the eleven-year-old wants me to point out that Stan Lee was wrong when he stated that "superheroes don't kill," citing Punisher (who she's only seen in animated cartoons) and Wolverine (who is of course ever-present).